Barbara DeYear, Tax Fraud, New York 2022

The indictment filed against 67-year-old Barbara DeYear in New York alleges that she withheld over $135,000 in employment taxes from her employees’ paychecks between 2019 and 2022, and failed to pay those withholdings to the IRS. She was arraigned on 6/xx/2024, in Binghamton, New York, before United States Magistrate Judge Miroslav Lovric, and was released pending a trial that will be scheduled later this year.

According to the indictment, DeYear is the co-owner and president of Independent Commercial Contractors, Inc., a Jefferson County-based corporation that does construction, demolition, and asbestos removal work. The charges against DeYear carry a maximum sentence of 5 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 per count, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.

A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors. DeYear’s trial is scheduled to take place before Senior United States District Court Judge David N. Hurd in Utica, New York.

The case is being investigated by the IRS-CI, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael F. Perry is prosecuting the case.

DeYear was arraigned today in Binghamton, New York, and was released pending a trial that will be scheduled later this year. The charges in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The indictment further alleges that DeYear failed to file quarterly tax returns on behalf of Independent Commercial Contractors from 2015 through 2022 but that during the COVID-19 pandemic she applied for a federally backed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and submitted a fraudulent “file copy” of two tax returns purporting to show tax payments on behalf of the corporation, when neither the tax returns nor the payments were sent to the IRS.

The charges against DeYear are 13 counts of tax fraud. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.